The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page B04

B4 Holiday Edition www.philly.com Thursday, December 25, 2008 THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER N. J. Republicans push to put state spending online A bill would have all data on a Web site. The GOP cites an $8 million payment to Camden. Donald's restaurant in Fort Hays, by Fort Hays State University, for example.

It was listed under the category "official hospitality," but more specific information was not provided. In New Jersey, good-government advocates endorse the proposal, saying it would help people monitor the government. "By making this information more readily available, citizens will play a more active role in the budget process," said Heather Taylor of the nonprofit Citizens cause the state controls the city's finances and one of Gov. Corzine's top treasury officials helped put together the city budget. The budget had a $24 million shortfall, and quadrupling the payment helped to close the gap.

Treasury spokesman Tom Vincz said this month that the $8 million was in line with the $300 million fair market value of the port. If taxable, the port would pay the city $8 million annually, according to the officials' estimation. It is legal for the Treasury Department to make changes to its port appropriation without legislative approval, Vincz said. After The Inquirer reported the increase earlier this month, Republicans said a law the Transparency in Government Act was needed to monitor, and possibly prevent, such spending. The act would require all state spending disbursements by agencies, contractual payments to vendors, salaries for employees to be listed in a searchable database.

The bill has kicked around in Trenton for a year, but a version, introduced this month eliminated one potential hurdle: Start-up funding for the site would come from donations, not tax dollars. The bill does not specify a mechanism for raising that money. "A hundred years from now, they're going to laugh 'What do you mean this wasn't put said State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio Morris), a sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. Pennacchio contended that "there's no transparency" in state spending.

A Web site would allow two types of savings, he said. "One, average citizens will say, 'I don't want to pay money on he said. "Then there's the other savings that you'll never see, because people will be absolutely scared out of their wits to do things that will be questioned." A few states have such a system. A quick search at shows that $64.80 was spent in June at the Mc plans to funnel to Camden through its port. In most years, the South Jersey Port Corp.

makes a payment in lieu of taxes to Camden for occupying about 300 acres on the city's waterfront. According to Camden's proposed budget for the 2009 fiscal year, the payment is increasing from $2 million to $8 million. South Jersey Port is a quasi-governmental agency, and its payments in lieu of taxes are paid by the state Department of Treasury. Republicans see the payment as a secret bailout be By Matt Katz INQUIRER STAFF WRITER New Jersey Republicans are seizing on an $8 million state payment, promised to Camden without their knowledge, to promote a bill under which all state spending would have to be included on a searchable Web site. "If this bill were law, it would allow the Legislature to fulfill its duty to keep an eye on back-room spending schemes developed by bureaucrats in Trenton," said Assemblywoman Alison McHose Sussex), referring to a payment the state Contact staff writer Matt Katz at 856-779-3919 or mkatzphillynews.com.

A rocky path to U.S. citizenship Teen asks trial as a juvenile till ml YANIS from Bl ment" on Dec. 9 the day an arrest warrant was filed detailing Yanis's plot to "shoot everyone he did not like" at Pottstown High. Steele said Yanis had not been arraigned on the charges, which include criminal attempt to commit murder and weapons offenses. Once the arraignment is scheduled, a judge will set bail, Steele said.

The juvenile justice system emphasizes rehabilitation, not punishment. Supervision ends when a treatment program is successfully completed or when a defendant turns 21, whichever comes first. Attention focused on Yanis after his father, Michael, 52, reported on Nov. 11 that three firearms and ammunition had been stolen from him. After police contacted school officials, they uncovered evidence of the plan.

Yanis had planned to carry out the massacre this year, but postponed the attack until next year after the school began checking backpacks and searching lockers, officials said. Heckman said a hearing on the decertification petition would likely be held within the next few weeks unless the District Attorney's Office declined to oppose the request. TOM GRALISH Staff Photographer Ahmed Weisi and his wife, Joan, at home in Whitehouse Station, N.J. Weisi, 59, has been a legal resident of the United States since 1987 and held an Austrian passport until recently. He has worked with the armed services in Iraq.

CITIZENSHIP from Bl devices, and participating in the interrogations of enemy combatants. Between deployments he comes home to his 200-year-old house in woodsy Whitehouse Station for rest and relaxation. But this month, when Weisi returned home early for medical treatment because of a helicopter-related injury to a knee and a shoulder, he went to Customs and Immigration and was stunned to learn that his citizenship request had been denied on the ground that his six-months-and-a-day deployment from Nov. 15, 2007, to May 16, 2008, disqualified him because he spent too much time outside the United States. An application for citizenship requires continued residency.

Despite exemplary military service, a hazmat license, special training at Fort Meade, and a high-security clearance to be able to work for the Department of Defense, Weisi's U.S. citizenship, it seemed, was not to be. "I was depressed. I felt like I was treated as less than human," he said. Up to that point, Weisi had represented himself.

With his wife's encouragement he got a lawyer, Audrey Allen of the Conshohocken firm Halberstadt Curley. To Allen, who specializes in immigration matters, the case seemed lacking in basic fairness. And given its long duration, it seemed a little absurd. "If this person is a real threat to security," she said, "do you want them hanging out here for six years while you're checking their background?" Weisi's wife also sent letters about the case to elected officials, including U.S. senators and representatives from New Jersey, local officials, and even President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Her husband came back from his preparatory training for Iraq carrying a record of his DNA and a form indicating where his remains were to be shipped in the event he was killed, she said. With each deployment he puts his life on the line for the United States and deserves better treatment, she added angrily. On Tuesday, out of the blue, better treatment arrived. Weisi got a call at home from the head of the Newark naturalization unit. He said the woman told him that it had come to their attention that his application had been "erroneously denied" and that the matter could be rectified that day.

He and Joan piled into their car and raced to Newark. Allen raced north from Conshohocken, too. Maybe the letters to elected officials had helped. Maybe hiring a lawyer, who brought media attention, did the trick. Maybe Customs and Immigration simply recognized the error and wanted to correct it.

In any case, the spotlight was shining to their advantage. At the Newark office they met with Contact staff writer Kathleen Brady Shea at 610-696-3021 or kbradyphillynews.com. First Day Classifieds FOR COMPLETE CLASSIFIED LISTINGS 00 TO 1 CLASSIFIEDS TO PLACE YOUR AD, CALL 1 .800.341 .3413 OR GO TO PHILLY.COM the United States in time of war, which seemed funny to him, because in Iraq he often is required to carry a gun. "The ceremony was really moving," Allen said. "Usually these are done a few times a year with hundreds of people." On "it was just the three of us and the officer who was called in especially to swear in Ahmed.

Joan snapped pictures," Allen said. "It was miraculous how he was treated. And it goes to show how Customs and Immigration can move mountains when it decides to get something done on account of its years of errors on a case." Efforts to reach agency officials were unsuccessful yesterday. Voice and e-mail messages left at the regional press office were not immediately returned. By 8 a.m.

yesterday, Weisi was at the passport office in Philadelphia. It took 212 hours for the precious blue booklet with the gold embossed lettering to be issued on an expedited basis, which is a good thing, he said, because he expects to be sent back to Iraq in about a week. As a citizen, he will earn higher pay. "As sweet as it sounds," Weisi said, don't be tempted to think of his citizenship as a magical gift just in time for Christmas. "This was my right," he said, getting angry all over again.

"I have proof of all the monkey business they did." WmBMMBSaBmfy tesNr Pets German Short Hair 'Pointer Pups, AKC reg 1st shots, wormed, hlth Ex hunting bldlns. Ready 1 21 2. $500; $550 610-329-9659 a ndy ek enn I orrj Weisi had the special distinction of taking his citizenship oath in a private ceremony in Newark, N.J., on Tuesday. Homes For Rent 1SXX Margaret St 3br, $675:1 Sxx Hart Ln Fenced bkyd 215.514.0653 Lawncrest 3BR Iba, gar, bsmt, paint. $745.

267-977-5639 OXFORD CIRC 3BR Iba, gar, bsmt, AC, new cpt paint. $795. 267-977-5639 ally hundreds of immigrants take the oath of citizenship together, but on Tuesday it was just him in a mostly empty building that seemed to have been kept open only to accommodate him. In fact, when he arrived, he had to go through a back door. A judge was brought in to preside.

Weisi was handed a small copy of the Constitution and his naturalization certificate, signed by President Bush. He raised his right hand. He renounced allegiance to any other nation. He swore to bear arms for a district adjudications officer whom Allen described as kind and apologetic. He handed Weisi a printed legal motion to reopen the case, meaning the immigration service, on its own and without Weisi's having to file a formal appeal, had decided to countermand the decision denying him citizenship.

Then, as in a dream, all the pieces began to fall into place. Weisi was led to the swearing-in room, a cavernous space, where usu Apartments For Rent 19XX Susquehanna Studio. $350, 3BR, $700. 215.765.9590 Contact staff writer Michael Matza at 215-854-2541 or mmatzaphillynews.com. Noway to start off the holidays Bent fenders were part of the order of the day yesterday morning, as commuters on Kelly Drive and elsewhere discovered the hard, crunching way that patches of black ice had formed during overnight freezing rain.

TOMORROW'S HEADLINES TONIGHT. Get a jump on tomorrow's news. Watch NBC 10's news at 11 pm Sunday thru Thursday for the next day's Inquirer headlines. DAVID SWANSON Staff Photographer.